One of the most significant trends in industry and business in recent years has been the advent and increased availability and use of personal and portable devices for communications and for access to information and the integration of services and functions through networks. This trend began with personal desktop computers and facsimile machines, which gave individual users personal and individual access to the data generation and manipulation powers of computers and the ability to send and receive data and images with the same ease as voice communications. The trend continued with cellular telephones and laptop and notebook computers which, by being personal and readily portable and serviced by wide area radio networks, freed the users from geographic constraints, such as the desktop. At this time, for example, individuals may be found making use of notebook computers and cellular telephones in literally any location that an individual can go, from the office to the home or car and even on remote backpacking trails.
A parallel and more recent trend, however, has been the use of electronic mail and the internet, in particular the World Wide Web, for communication and as a readily available and wide ranging information source, so that the primary day to day business or professional environment of many individuals is the internet. That is, for many individuals electronic mail and the Web have replaced the telephone and the personal or notebook computer, and the computer and the telephone system are primarily used as web and electronic mail devices rather than for their original functions. In addition, many services and functions that were formerly provided on a stand-alone basis by separate systems or through dedicated networks have been replaced by systems operating through the internet.
Individuals and systems using, for example, the information and communication facilities of the internet, however, have not been able to take advantage of the portability and lack of locational restriction offered by users of cellular telephones and laptop or notebook computers for a number of reasons, most particularly the need for a direct, physical connection to a telephone or cable line of some form. The user of electronic mail and the Web, for example, has thereby been tied to the desktop, or at least to locations within a few feet of a telephone jack. Also, many potential users of electronic mail and, in particular, the Web, have been inhibited from taking advantage of these resources because of the complexity of the devices for making use of electronic mail and the Web. That is, in order to use electronic mail or the Web, it is necessary for a user to have and to learn to use a general purpose computer and then to learn to use a number of complex specialized electronic mail and Web browser programs, as well as the necessary additional devices, such as modems.
The present invention provides a solution to these and other problems of the prior art.